Do more Mr President!

Mmegi Editor | Monday April 10, 2023 06:00

Introspection will help him make proper judgements whether as a leader he is living up to the expectations of the masses and or there are gaps in the promises he made to the people upon his ascension to the highest office in the land. We, however, join masses to congratulate you for being the steward of the public ship.

Lead us out of the societal ills bedevilling our country. There is a lot that the Masisi-led government may have done and a lot that is yet to be done. Crime is rising, joblessness is a rising concern, and hospitals are hit by acute shortage of medication to just mention but a few. Half way through his constitutional five-year two terms, the President and his party, the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), have to move even faster to ensure that the promises in the party’s manifesto in the 2019 General Election are delivered.

Already people have started talking about these promises in doubtful perspective. Whilst the party is insistent that it is delivering up to people’s expectations, opposition voices feel the ruling party has overstayed its relevance. The President has been globetrotting in search of opportunities and that should fast translate into more opportunities for a country that has a fair share of its challenges. Of course, we have seen investors coming into the country to see for themselves, the prevailing investment climate.

It’s time the President’s efforts come to fruition and jobs created for the worrying jobless masses. The country’s unemployment rate stands at 24.72 % (2021 figure). Botswana is currently grappling with youth unemployment (38.6 %) as at 2021, which is exacerbated by the worrying levels of job lay-offs across the sectors as some (sectors) have failed to recover from the biting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is worrying that Botswana’s economy continues to experience jobless growth which sees the country’s tertiary institutions churning out graduates that join the long queues of jobseekers in the crowded job market. Job creation is one area that the BDP government, which has been in power since 1966 should be proud of managing in a population of about 2.4 million people.

Crimes of all sorts are another worrying area that requires strong management. Deploying the police and the army to shoot and kill criminals is not a sustainable solution. It has already proven to be a risky undertaking as at one of the recent shooting incidents, the police killed the innocent. We would also ask you to take control of the Peter Magosi-led spy agency, the Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) as it is currently behaving like a super government department. It is probably leading with litigation cases in the government departments. Do more Mr President!

Today’s thought

“Wisdom can only come through honest introspection” -Nirmala Srivastava